Run FFmpeg on Vercel
Offload the command and skip Vercel's 250 MB bundle cap.
Serverless FFmpeg
An FFmpeg API runs FFmpeg commands on cloud servers instead of your own machine. Rendobar's runs your exact command and returns the output URL on a webhook. The FFmpeg you already write, running from runtimes that can't spawn it. No presets, no wrappers, no servers to scale.
$5 in free credits. No credit card required.
Run FFmpeg where you can't install FFmpeg
Usage
import { createClient } from "@rendobar/sdk";
const rb = createClient({ apiKey: process.env.RENDOBAR_API_KEY });
const job = await rb.jobs.create({ type: "ffmpeg", params: { command: "ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 out.mp4", },});
const result = await rb.jobs.wait(job.id);console.log(result.output); // { data, file, files, expiresAt }Simulated run with an example asset. Run real jobs in the playground.
Serverless
Edge and serverless functions can't ship a system binary or spawn a subprocess, so FFmpeg won't run there. Even ffmpeg.wasm can't run inside a Cloudflare Worker. Offload the command to Rendobar and the same call works from any runtime.
Offload the command and skip Vercel's 250 MB bundle cap.
Process video from a Worker that can't spawn a binary.
Trigger jobs from a Deno Edge Function over REST.
Netlify, Node, Deno, and any other runtime follow the same pattern.
Capabilities
Rendobar's FFmpeg API is FFmpeg as a service. Each operation below is one command sent to POST /jobs. No preset menu, no per-feature pricing. See the FFmpeg guide for the full reference.
These are the common ones. Anything else the latest FFmpeg can encode or decode works too. You run the real binary, not a limited subset.
GPU acceleration
Rendobar's FFmpeg API runs your commands on CPU-powered or GPU-powered machines. The hardware encoders h264_nvenc, hevc_nvenc and av1_nvenc on NVIDIA L4 GPUs encode H.264, HEVC and AV1 in dedicated hardware. There are no GPU instances to provision and no drivers to install.
Pick the hardware with the optional compute param, or leave it on auto. Auto sends any command that already uses NVENC or CUDA to a GPU, so an existing ffmpeg command needs nothing new. Billing is per second of processing.
GPU acceleration is on the Pro plan. CPU and auto run on every plan. For archival masters or the lowest bitrates, software libx264 at a slow preset still wins on quality per bit, and you keep that option.
Integrations
Beyond a raw HTTP request: no-code automations, a typed SDK, and native MCP for AI agents.
Compare
Self-host FFmpeg and you own the servers, scaling, and security. Use a preset-based API and you lose raw control. Rendobar gives you both: every FFmpeg command, nothing to run.
| Compared on | Rendobar | Self-hosted FFmpeg | Preset-based APIs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run any FFmpeg command | Yes | Yes | Presets only |
| Servers to run | None | You manage them | None |
| Time to first job | One POST | Hours to days | Minutes |
| Pay only for what runs | Per compute second | Servers bill 24/7 | Often GB-metered |
| Sandboxed per job | Yes, isolated | Your responsibility | Not exposed |
| Async webhooks + realtime | Built in | Build it yourself | Varies |
| Native MCP for AI agents | Yes | No | No |
| Zero egress on output | Yes | Depends on host | Often charged |
| FFmpeg upgrades + security | Managed | Your job | Managed |
| Free to start | $5, no card | Pay for infra | Card required |
Compared against the two common alternatives to a managed FFmpeg API. Comparing a specific provider? See Rendobar vs Rendi, vs Transloadit, or all comparisons. For a full breakdown, read our FFmpeg API comparison.
FAQ
An FFmpeg API runs FFmpeg commands on a remote server instead of on your own machine. Rendobar's FFmpeg API does exactly that. You POST an FFmpeg command with input URLs, it runs them in a sandboxed cloud container, and returns the output URL on a webhook. You get the full power of FFmpeg without installing the binary or running servers.
Jobs are async by default. POST returns a job ID immediately. Rendobar sends a webhook to your URL on completion. You can also poll GET /jobs/{id} or subscribe via the realtime SDK.
Jobs are billed by compute time at $0.05 per minute, usually a few cents each. Every account starts with $5 in free credits, no card required. Pro is $9/month for higher limits and longer timeouts. At low to medium volume this beats self-hosting FFmpeg, where idle servers bill 24/7 even when no job is running.
Free tier jobs run up to 5 minutes. Pro plan ($9/month) raises that to 15 minutes. For renders longer than 15 minutes, contact us about higher limits.
Not natively. Those runtimes can't ship the FFmpeg binary or spawn a subprocess, and Cloudflare Workers can't run ffmpeg.wasm because the core exceeds the 10 MB bundle limit. Instead you call Rendobar's FFmpeg API over HTTP from any of them, and the command runs in a sandboxed container. You pass public or presigned input URLs directly in the command. See the Vercel, Cloudflare, and Supabase guides for setup.
Free tier accepts inputs up to 500 MB. Pro stores assets up to 10 GB and processes up to 8 GB in a single job. Contact us for higher limits.
Outputs stay available for 7 days on the free tier and 30 days on Pro. Download or copy them to your own storage before they expire.
You run the latest FFmpeg build, not a limited subset. That covers H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP9, AV1, ProRes, AAC, Opus, and every other codec and filter the binary ships with.
Yes. Rendobar's FFmpeg API runs h264_nvenc, hevc_nvenc, and av1_nvenc on NVIDIA L4 GPUs, billed per second. Add a compute param to pick the hardware. It defaults to auto, so an NVENC or CUDA command routes to a GPU on its own. GPU acceleration is available on the Pro plan. CPU and auto work on every plan.
Yes, because the infrastructure ran. If a failure was caused by our infrastructure or a third-party outage, contact support for a discretionary refund.
MediaConvert and Coconut are preset-driven. You pick a preset, they encode. Rendobar runs the FFmpeg command you write. Anything FFmpeg can do, the API can do, including filter graphs that presets cannot express.
You write the FFmpeg command. We run it on powerful, scalable infrastructure that handles anything from a single clip to your entire pipeline. No servers to provision, patch, or scale.